By Edward Chaykovsky
Bob Bennett, executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, says the entire situation with Manny Pacquiao's right shoulder injury is "unacceptable."
Last Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Pacquiao dropped a twelve round unanimous decision to Floyd Mayweather Jr. Following the match, promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank revealed that Pacquiao suffered a right shoulder injury in early April.
While Arum claimed that the NSAC was aware of the injury, they denied that information and claim to have been informed about 90 minutes before the fight was scheduled to take place. The injury was revealed when Pacquiao's team had requested to give him an anti-inflammatory shot - a request the commission denied.
As previously reported, the NSAC will conduct an investigation to decide whether or not to purse a civil charge of perjury against Pacquiao and Top Rank for the boxer's failure to disclose the injury when he filled out a medical questionnaire at the official weigh-in.
According to Bennett, the NSAC has a meeting scheduled May 15, but it won't be until June or July before chairman Francisco Aguilar and the commissioners make a decision as to whether or not to file a complaint against Top Rank and Pacquiao.
Pacquiao is scheduled to have surgery on the injury shortly and it may keep him out until 2016.
Arum had claimed that he was under the impression that USADA, the company conducting the random drug testing protocol on both fighters, had informed the NSAC. USADA denied knowledge of the injury. Regardless, Bennett says it wasn't USADA's place to pass that type of information.
Bennett told New York Newsday:
"It's been stated that the NSAC had been advised of Manny's shoulder injury. That's totally incorrect. It was said we were informed by USADA, and USADA never informed us. With the number of years Top Rank has been in business, they know that, if they want to inform us of the situation, they should be telling us. They shouldn't be telling USADA to tell us. That's just unacceptable. We interviewed the physicians representing Manny, and they advised us his health and safety would not be at risk if he fought without the injection."
An HBO spokesman also told the paper - "Nobody informed us of any shoulder injury to Manny Pacquiao during his training camp."